The Story Behind the Song
The Story Behind the Song Podcast Season 3 Returning with The Cranberries, Incubus, Graham Nash, and More
The Cranberries, Incubus, Graham Nash, CHVRCHES, and more of your favorite artists guest on the hit podcast. The Story Behind the Song Podcast Returning for Season 3 Consequence Staff
The Story Behind Air Supply’s “All Out of Love” as Told by Graham Russell
The guitarist chats about the band's rise and how the song became an international hit. The Story Behind Air Supply’s “All Out of Love” as Told by Graham Russell Consequence Staff
The Story Behind A Flock of Seagulls’ New Wave Classic “I Ran (So Far Away)”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | YouTube | RSS For the first episode of the New Year, The Story Behind the Song is celebrating the 40th anniversary of A Flock of Seagulls by diving into their new wave classic “I Ran (So Far Away).” Advertisement “I Ran” is a song that immediately spread its wings around the world when it was released in March of 1982, and continues to fly today. Taken from their self-titled debut (a 40th anniversary edition and box set for which is coming on February 17th), the track helped define the band — as did their look. That Seagull-ian hairstyle transfixed audiences back then, and continues to be burned into the collective po...
The Story Behind Nirvana’s Era-Defining Anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as Told by Producer Butch Vig
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | YouTube | RSS Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is much more than a song. It was — and remains — one of music’s defining moments of the modern era and continues to find itself on virtually every all-time “best of” lists. (Same goes for the album it comes from, Nevermind, which ranked Top 10 on Consequence’s Greatest Albums of All Time list.) When released in 1991, “Spirit” transformed more than our airwaves — it transformed culture and society itself as it blasted onto the scene and thrust grunge into the mainstream. Those relentless drums that open the track, so loudly played by David Grohl that no mics were n...
The Story Behind Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo’s Halloween Classic “Dead Man’s Party”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | YouTube | RSS Over the last 40 years, true renaissance man Danny Elfman has delivered it all through various incarnations. As performer, frontman, composer, conductor, and visualizer, he is the consummate multi-dimensional artists. Always unconventional, always out of place — and always slightly dangerous because of it — the Grammy- and Emmy-winning innovator and his body of work are undeniably genius — and also all a bit mad. Advertisement The frenetic and haunted mind of so many mediums, Elfman was meant for the Halloween season. For this special spooky season edition of The Story Behind the Song, Elfman — Jack Skel...
The Story Behind Silversun Pickups’ Gritty, Grinding Masterpiece “Lazy Eye”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS Southern California natives Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger front Silversun Pickups, one of rock music’s leading bastions of guitar glory. The band just recently released their sixth studio album, Physical Thrills, produced by the legendary Butch Vig of Garbage (who were highlighted on July’s episode of The Story Behind the Song). The LP is marked by an adventurous — and intentional — departure of sorts, a tone brilliantly set by the lead single, “Scared Together.” Advertisement Related Video But the path to this latest record starts back in 2006 with the band’s first studio album, Carnavas, and its breakout track “La...
The Story Behind Why Garbage’s Shirley Manson Is “Only Happy When It Rains”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS Garbage are an iconic, eclectic band that is anything but what their name implies. With the music scene awash in a sea of grunge at the time, Garbage went a different way — and to great effect. This all-star band — with world class producer Bruce “Butch” Vig (Nirvana) at the production helm — has released hit after dynamic hit with an infectious pop sound that belied frequently dark lyrics. They’ve scored a number of Top 10 hits and were even chosen to record a James Bond theme. Advertisement Seven studio albums into their journey (with their latest release being 2021’s No Gods No Masters) and the band continues to pro...
The Story Behind “The Glamorous Life,” Sheila E.’s Classic Pop Collab with Prince
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS “The Glamorous Life” proved to be a major solo breakout for Sheila E. in 1984. The classic pop track was one of her man collaborations with the legendary Prince, but Sheila E. already had a long history of playing with legends. In fact, her professional career began at only 15, when her father (a percussionist himself) asked her to fill in for him as part of Santana’s band before a crowd of thousands in a night she describes as a true “out of body experience.” Advertisement From that point forward, this Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient fearlessly forged forged new pathways in the male-dominated world of per...
The Story Behind “The Glamorous Life,” Sheila E.’s Classic Pop Collab with Prince
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS “The Glamorous Life” proved to be a major solo breakout for Sheila E. in 1984. The classic pop track was one of her man collaborations with the legendary Prince, but Sheila E. already had a long history of playing with legends. In fact, her professional career began at only 15, when her father (a percussionist himself) asked her to fill in for him as part of Santana’s band before a crowd of thousands in a night she describes as a true “out of body experience.” Advertisement From that point forward, this Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient fearlessly forged forged new pathways in the male-dominated world of per...
The Story Behind How They Might Be Giants Built a “Birdhouse in Your Soul”
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS The transition from 1980s new wave and hair rock to 1990s far less follically-minded indie pop wasn’t always a smooth one. But enigmatic, idiosyncratic, and frequently non-grammatical duo They Might Be Giants made it all go down so easy with instantly catchy hooks and frequently hilarious lyrics. The band’s tongue-in-cheek non-sequiturs and unconventional instrumentation masked a knack for writing songs that made us hum the first time we heard them. Nowhere is that more evident than in their major label breakout hit “Birdhouse in Your Soul” from their 1990 album Flood, which is likely the first — and only — song ever sung f...
The Story Behind Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Making Him an Internet and Cultural Phenomenon
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS Rick Astley burst onto the pop scene 1987 seemingly out of nowhere when his debut single, the feel-good, earnest dance anthem “Never Gonna Give You Up,” grabbed the No. 1 spot in 25 countries, including the US and UK. In just a matter of weeks, Astley — then only 21 — traded his small town outside of Manchester, England for center stage on a global scale. And he never gave it up, either, even when he broke the pop and dance expectations thrust upon him a few years later and turned to soul. As fate would have it, “Never Gonna Give You Up” never gave up either. Two decades after its release, the song “Rickrolled” its way back...
The Story Behind “Home” and “Truth,” Edward Sharpe’s Companion Songs of Darkness and Light
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS Alex Ebert is lead singer, songwriter and resident shaman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the hippie-inspired outfit that broke out in 2009 with a fresh sound that was difficult to pin down. Ebert, via his alter-ego messiah character Edward Sharpe, brought back a new earnestness and authenticity to music with country-inspired folk-pop. With the Magnetic Zeros, Sharpe’s breakout single and signature song across four albums is, of course, “Home.” An ebullient and endearing anthem of love and pure joy, the song has become iconic thanks to its instantly recognizable whistles and indelible opening lyric, “Alabama, Arkan...
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